Identifying and addressing child grooming in organisations
Jul 2026
What is grooming and why are organisations grappling with this problem?
Grooming is a deliberate and patterned process of behaviour in which an adult builds trust and emotional connection with a child, and often their family or community, for the purpose of facilitating sexual abuse. It typically occurs gradually over time and may involve a series of seemingly appropriate or positive interactions that, when viewed in isolation, appear non-threatening. Grooming can occur both in-person and online. A key challenge for organisations is that many grooming behaviours overlap with legitimate, supportive, and developmentally appropriate professional practice. Staff working with children are expected to build trust, provide care, and develop relational safety, precisely the same domains targeted by perpetrators. This creates a significant safeguarding tension: the same relational skills required for good practice can also be exploited for harmful purposes. To reconcile this tension, organisations need clear guidance on ways to identify grooming behaviours so that child-friendly programs can run effectively and staff feel safe and supported to work with one another. Such guidance cannot be so high level or independent of work context to render it of little practical use, nor can it be so prescriptive or punitive that staff are given no discretion to build safe and supportive relationships with children.Information about the risks of child sexual abuse occurring
All children are vulnerable to child sexual abuse based on their developmental dependence and power imbalance that occurs between them and adults.1 However, vulnerability is not evenly distributed and certain children experience heightened risk of child abuse, including children who identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, culturally and linguistically diverse, with a disability, LGBTQI+ and/or live in out of home care.2 This is an extension of the power dynamic that exists between children and adults. Contemporary safeguarding research suggests that the likelihood of child sexual abuse is increased through the interaction of multiple risk domains rather than a single causal factor. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse identified four key domains of risk:- Vulnerability risk – the characteristics of the child.
- Situational risk – opportunities for adults to be alone with children or form close relationships).
- Propensity risk – disproportionate clustering of adults with a propensity to abuse child
- Institutional risk – characteristics of the institution that may make abuse more likely to occur and less likely to be identified and responded to effectively.3
The role of a Child Safeguarding Code of Conduct
A Child Safeguarding Code of Conduct is a critical operational tool that translates safeguarding principles into clear, observable behavioural expectations for staff. Importantly, Codes of Conduct do not attempt to determine intent. Instead, they define acceptable and unacceptable behaviours and provide a structured framework for identifying, responding to, and escalating concerns based on observable practice. This helps resolve a key tension in child-facing organisations: staff must be able to build trusting, relational environments while also maintaining clear professional boundaries that reduce risk. Where breaches occur, Codes of Conduct support:- early intervention and supervision
- behaviour correction and guidance
- escalation to formal review processes where necessary
- identification of behavioural patterns over time
- spend one-on-one time with children where there is no professional duty to do so.
- transport children in their private vehicle.
- ignore or disregard any concerns, suspicions or disclosures of child abuse or harm.
- photograph children without their consent and where there is no professional duty to do so.
- have unauthorised contact with children on social media or by phone.
- engage in non-work activities such as babysitting or tutoring without management’s consent.
- provide any gifts to children.
- use sexual language or gestures toward children.
- initiate unnecessary physical contact with children or do things of a personal nature that children can do for themselves such as changing clothes.
- develop ‘special’ relationships with specific children or show favouritism through the provision of gifts or unnecessary or unsuitable attention.
Conclusion
Grooming is a complex and often subtle process that can be difficult to identify in real time. Perpetrators frequently rely on ambiguity, gradual boundary testing, and the appearance of positive or supportive behaviour to avoid detection. This complexity means that safeguarding cannot rely on intuition or isolated incident reporting alone. Instead, effective protection of children requires a combination of:- clear behavioural expectations
- structured Codes of Conduct
- strong supervision and reflective practice
- organisational awareness of risk domains
References and further reading
Australian Childhood Foundation – Child Safeguarding Resources: https://www.childhood.org.au
Australian Institute of Family Studies – Child Abuse and Neglect Statistics: https://aifs.gov.au/resources/resource-sheets/child-abuse-and-neglect-statistics
Australian Human Rights Commission – Children’s Rights: https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/childrens-rights
Child Family Community Australia (CFCA) – Information Exchange on Child Abuse Prevention: https://cfca.aifs.gov.au
Commission for Children and Young People (Victoria) – Child Safe Standards: https://ccyp.vic.gov.au/resources/child-safe-standards/
National Office for Child Safety – National Principles for Child Safe Organisations: https://www.childsafety.gov.au/national-principles
Office of the Public Guardian (NSW) – Child Safe Organisations: https://www.opg.nsw.gov.au
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse – Final Report: https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/final-report
UNICEF – Child Safeguarding Toolkit for Business: https://www.unicef.org/childrightsandbusiness/reports/child-safeguarding-toolkit-business
United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child – Guidelines on Violence against Children: https://www.ohchr.org/en/treaty-bodies/crc
[1] UNICEF. (2021). Child safeguarding toolkit for business. https://www.unicef.org/childrightsandbusiness/reports/child-safeguarding-toolkit-business
[2] Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. (2017). Final report: Nature and cause. Australian Government. https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/nature-and-cause
[3] Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. (2016, December 14). Research identifies four dimensions of risk of child sexual abuse in institutional settings [Media release]. Australian Government. https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/media-releases/research-identifies-four-dimensions-risk-child-sexual-abuse-institutional-settings
[4] Commission for Children and Young People (Vic). (2023). Child Safe Standards: Guidance and resources. https://ccyp.vic.gov.au/resources/child-safe-standards/
[5] Commission for Children and Young People (Vic). (2023). Child Safe Standards: Guidance and resources. https://ccyp.vic.gov.au/resources/child-safe-standards/
